Isana emerged from her tent looking as fresh and well put together as she always insisted on. it seemed to me this morning that she had put extra effort into her appearance. Her long dark hair was braided and pinned into a crown on her head, the clothes she'd chosen to wear were the ones given to her by the Elves on our visit to them; eminently suited to travel yet elegant and feminine too and cut to accentuate her best traits. She wore make-up as usual, I had never seen her not wearing it for she insisted that it was her duty to always try to look her best, even out in the field, but it looked like she'd taken especial care this morning. She was even wearing mascara. I was nearly done with my morning exercise, just running the last rep on my cool-down stretches then I'd grab a quick wash and bathe in the nearby river. Yoruichi, in her cat-form, was nearby eating a fish that she had caught and I had cooked over the fire while I finished my training regimen.

"There's food over the fire if you want it," I said gesturing to the place where the remains of breakfast waited along with a pot of heated water for tea or coffee (vile drink that it was) if she wanted it.

For some reason that escaped me, Isana enjoyed drinking that hell-brew. She actually insisted that she needed to drink it every morning or she couldn't function. If Kuchiki married a woman able to consume that horrid concoction without flinching no wonder he was still so stuck on her, she must truly be a woman among women. Isana watched me run my last few yoga poses, and finish with salutation to the sun while she sipped from her mug of boiled bitterness.

"I'm for a quick bath," I said, grabbing the nearby towel hanging from a tree-limb and sauntering off. I always felt so much better after some morning exercise.

The nearby steam where I had caught our dinner and Yoruichi's breakfast bubbled merrily and I followed it down until I came across a part where it widened out and calmed into a shallow pool then promptly stripped the rest of the way and started wading in. The chill water actually felt good against my heated skin.

"I think I'll join you," a familiar voice said off to one side.

I would have turned my head and scowled in her direction, but caught myself in time with the remembrance that when she changed forms, she did it without clothes. She was not the person I wanted to share a bath with; I already knew she was somewhat involved with that Uruhara and he was one man that I did not want ta piss off by foolin' around with his woman. Besides, Yoruichi looked like she'd scratch my back to ribbons, and I liked my women declawed a bit.

"I thought cat's were s'posed ta hate water," I grunted in reply, ducking under to rinse off the sweat.

I came back up with a gasp (the water was a little colder than I had originally thought) and flipped my hair back out of my face... and there she was, in all her human (very naked) glory. She smirked at me with all of the easy confidence of a woman who's completely hot and knows it.

"You wash my back and I'll wash yours," she invited.

Oh-hoh no, I was so not going near that. If there was one woman in the world who delighted in trouble (and would happily make some if she couldn't find it on her own) it was Yoruichi Shihouin. Still women could be touchy about rejection, and a woman who had once been nobility would surely have to be doubly so; especially when that rejection implied some lack of and attractive feature in a woman who was known for her beauty. How to couch this carefully in terms of flattery...

"I couldn't possibly trouble such a beautiful woman with such a menial task," I protested, lying through my teeth and feeling rather proud of the way it had come out sounding.

Yoruichi studied me through narrowed eyes, clearly debating internally whether or not she was going to accept my flattery and leave me alone. No dice. She smiled that cat with cream on its whiskers (or in this case, more like with a mouse under its paw) and said

"Oh it's no trouble at all Lieutenant. After all, I'm already not wearing anything. I might as well have a good wash before we continue on, and bath time is so much more fun with someone to share it with."

"Get a rubber ducky," I replied flatly, growing irritated with her insistence already.

I sank deeper into the water, glaring downward in annoyance at the offending appendage that had once again taken on a mind of its own. That happened in Seireitei too, of course, but without the biology of flesh, such reaction were less frequent and usually only towards those that the person already liked or was attracted too. Yoruichi was attractive and there was no getting around that, but I did not generally find that I desired her company of a night. Now that i was a being of flesh with all of its inherent concerns, this body of mine wanted what it wanted and didn't really care what I thought on the matter.

I could hear her step into the water and approach me though I kept my back resolutely turned toward her. I was already at half mast, looking at her would just... I started doing sums in my head as I heard her sashaying closer in the water.

"Back off woman," I growled, dropping any pretense at flattery.

"You're so tense," she said, simply appearing right behind me in the water and squeezing my shoulders.

I moved slightly to one side as a silent signal that her handling of me was not appreciated. To be honest parts of me appreciated it very much, and would have liked to appreciate more, but I had other things to concern myself with. I was not some weak-willed adolescent to be turned this way and that with a touch. It was a little insulting to be treated that way. Yes, she was a beautiful woman, and yes I found her attractive, but attractive was not irresistible. I was a warrior in the field, and if I wanted my Captain to take me seriously, I had better act like one. that meant no dallying with mischievous females like I had nothing better to do with my time.

Besides, I didn't like being used or toyed with. I didn't like games.

"Don't be shy, I promise I'll be gentle," she purred, pressing her whole body flush to mine.

I'm not going to lie, it felt good. Very good. She was soft in all the right places, her skin was smooth and her curves promised wonders if I would just turn around. My stubbornness reared its head (it was not the only thing to rear its head) and I stayed resolutely still. I tried to remind myself of why pinning her up against a nearby rock would be a bad idea but all of my higher brain functions seemed to have escaped southward.

"I've always been just a little curious about you, Renji," she said to me as she ran a hand across my shoulder and down my chest, molding each muscle by feel. It felt incredible.

"Every time I see you, you're always fighting or training if you're not eating or sleeping."

She worked her hand over my battle-hard chest, exploring by touch as I stood there, trying to work up a suitable response to this turn of events.

"You've never given me anything more than a cursory glance."

And there it was, the real reason she was so intent on having her way with me, or making me have her way with her, I wasn't sure which. She was just in a fit a female pique because I seemed resistant to her charms. It was nothing more than the lure of the unattainable.

"I know you like girls. Just because you're in love with Rukia; there's no real reason why we can't have fun if there's nothing between you two right now."

Which sort of made it a bit worse. She was only curious about me and she knew how I felt about Rukia.

I caught her wrist, stopping her at my waist and gently but firmly pushed her hand away from me.

"Curiosity killed the cat," I said.

"Satisfaction brought it back," she replied playfully, arching her body up against mine.

Whoa. That felt... incredible. I shook myself out of it and by a supreme effort of will stepped forward and away from her, turning to the side so I could at least try to keep an eye on her so she wouldn't try anything else.

"Thank you for the kind offer," I said, unable to keep a least a little bit of huskiness from bleeding into my voice while I tried to bring my heart-rate and breathing back under control. "But I believe I'll decline."

She looked at me with some surprise.

"I do believe that Byaku-bo's uptightness has begun to rub off on you," she teased.

"No," I corrected her. "I'm just not the kind of guy who'll take whatever is offered, just because it's offered. You're trouble, woman, and I don't really feel like adding on whatever little amusement you've got in mind to my already hectic mess."

Yoruichi gazed at me with a long, level measuring look. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but it seemed to me that surprise flickered in the depths of her gold eyes.

"You're really turning me down, aren't you?" she said in amazement.

There was a large part of me that wanted to say, just kidding and proceed to water-filled fun (because it had been a little while, not too long, but a little longer than I was accustomed to being celibate) but I sternly reminded myself about all the ways in which fun with Yoruichi (or playing right into her claws) would be a Very Bad Idea. I wasn't a brilliant man, but I knew a set-up when I smelled one. There was something about this that seemed a little too like something out of a fantasy for me to accept it at face value. She'd never even glanced once in my direction before and suddenly she's eagre for a roll in the hay (or whatever)?

"Yeah," I said, finishing up my wash and ducking under so I could get the hell out of there.

I made a few clean stroke under the water and came out on the opposite bank. When I came up for air, she was sunning herself, sprawled out casual as you please in all of her naked glory on a nearby rock. She looked at me steadily, as one might examine some sort of new species of bug and at last said

"Are you turning me down because you don't want to have sex with me or because you're already in love?"

I turned it back on her.

"Are you trying to have sex with me just because you're curious or because I'm already in love?"

Her little kitty smirk suddenly widened in a real smile and she laughed a full-throated laugh (which, let me tell you, did wonders for her. Wow.)

"You become more like your Captain every day. That's just the sort of answer he would have given me. Well, they do say that pets begin to take on the traits of their masters."

I scowled at her for referring to me as a pet.

"If you're able to resist me ambushing you naked in a spring, I guess you can stand up to about any temptation," she said merrily.

"You certainly have a high opinion of yourself," I muttered.

"So I suppose the mortal woman is safe enough in your care, or is it that you are in hers? I still can't believe you allowed some woman besides Rukia to put a collar on you."

"She's got a kid," I said defensively. "And she's all alone with no-one else to help her out."

"And she looks just like Rukia," Yoruichi noted. "You poor thing. You must have been caught up like a salmon in a net."

She shook her head a little, but there was something strangely soft, almost fond, on her face instead of the usual teasing smirk.

"You really do have too much of the knight errant in you, Renji. Rukia doesn't know what a lucky girl she is."

"Careful, that almost sounded like an unqualified compliment," I replied, emerging from the water and toweling off.

I heard her mutter as she watched me walk out of the water and tie the towel around my waist

"She really, really doesn't know what a lucky girl she is."

I grinned and dressed to head back to camp. It was always nice to be appreciated.


"I guess we're ready to go," Isana said brightly as I stored the last of our gear on Tanner's back. I pulled up the set of armor that the Elves had made up for her with its long, high-necked black-diamond undercoat and the intricately-detailed, molded plate-armor breast-plate and greaves.

"Almost," I said agreeably.

I held out the suit to her, indicating that she should put it on.

"Uh, no," Isana replied to my silent request. "I don't want to wear that."

"Oh, gee that's too bad," I said, smiling a little at her. "Because we're not going anywhere until you put it on."

"Excuse you?" Isana demanded archly. "Who do you think you are, telling me what to wear mister tattoo-face?"

"I think that, willing or not, I'm your bodyguard," I replied firmly. "And since I'm doing all the fighting, there might be times when I can't be there to guard you. The armor will make it harder for your enemy to eat you, it should buy you enough time to use that new magic of yours to roast the attacker, or for me to get there and finish him off."

Perfectly, sensible and logical reasoning there, she'd have to be a fool not to listen to me.

"I don't care," Isana said, crossing her arms. "I don't want to wear it."

I stared at her in shock for a long moment. Here we were, trekking across dangerous, uncharted, possibly enemy, territory in hopes of taking on a new enemy we may or may not actually be able to fight and she didn't want to wear protection?

"Well why not?" I demanded, beginning to get irritated.

"It's heavy," she objected.

"You're riding anyway," I said.

"It's hot," she said.

"Think cool thoughts," I said flatly, advancing on her a little.

She backed up.

"I already wore it yesterday, I can't wear something two days in a row," she tried again.

"Yer clothes are clean enough," I snatched half-heartedly at her and she dodged.

I snatched again and she scrambled out of the way. Now I was starting to get really irritated.

"Geeze, it's like chasing a four-year old!" I growled under my breath.

"I already told you, I'm not wearing it!" she shouted at me.

"Yes you are, or yer not goin' no-where," I rebutted. "I'll just leave you here."

"You can't do that!" she said, outraged.

"Watch me," I shrugged.

Thrusting the armful of armor at her. She kicked it to one side and turned her head sharply away as a gesture of refusal.

"That's fine," I said, shrugging again. "I can wait here all day for you to put it on. But I should remind you that the longer you wait standing here arguing with me, the further your kid is getting away from you."

"Down!" she shouted, flaring out with her power.

The collar not only made me hit the floor, making my back feel like I had a thousand pound weight resting on it, but it sent a strong buzzing shock along my senses like a tazer.

"Gyaah!" I shouted in pain.

She towered over me, with me slumped over at her feet like a captive and crossed her arms.

"No armor," she said emphatically.

I pulled myselF up to a sitting position and glared at her. There she went, pushing the envelope again. I was going out of my way to keep her safe, geas or no geas, but it seemed like every time I gave her an inch, she'd up and decide ta take a mile.

"And we're leaving now," she snapped, sounding like a princess ordering around her servant.

I might be bound by geas, and a nice enough guy ta try an' reunite a worried mother with her son, but there were limits and this was mine.

"Not without that armor on you, we're not," I insisted.

This was something I wasn't going to cave in on, I'd promised that I would protect her to the best of my abilities and this was something that was going to help me do that. I couldn't be everywhere at once...

"Mortal," the cat said sharply from where she had been witnessing the fight from her perch on a tree stump.

Yoruichi had turned back to her feline form before we'd come back to camp. There was no point in shocking ht eMortal with anything else on top of everything she was already dealing with.

"What?" Isana demanded.

"You are the one who bound him to serve as you protector and help you rescue your son, you shouldn't discount his sensible advice when he is acting in your better interests. Renji, though he is highly ranked in the Soul Society, is young yet in terms of Reaper-years, and the situation is dangerous and very unpredictable, he cannot be everywhere at once. Not even the best of warriors can be everywhere at once. He is so insistent on you wearing that armor because he is aware of this fact. If he is caught in a battle and is unable to reach your side, and you are attacked, that armor may save your life. Renji is right to insist, you should listen to him... and also, you should stop treating the poor man to the rough side of your distemper merely because you are frightened and worried for your child."

That explained why she'd been so damned unreasonable lately. The journey must have begun to wear on her. She got regally spoiled when she was tired and cranky then. Heh, maybe she was the boss' wife after all.

Isana looked at the cat, who stared unblinkingly back at her then she looked at me, sitting firmly on the ground and not budging and sighed gustily.

"I guess that makes sense," she said almost grudgingly. "here, help me get this on then."

I rose and picked up the pieces from off the ground, then helped her into the black diamond mail-coat and secured it on her by the fastenings. then grabbed up the corset-like fitted breast plate, and secured that onto her. There was something really neat and wonderful about this Elven armor they'd made for her, instead of being a collection of many large pieces that had to be fastened, fitted and tied together by an attendant, Elven armor was only about three or four pieces; the helmet, the mailcoat that went on under it, the breast-piece, the arm-bracers and the boots. When the owner of the armor touched a jewel on each peice the armor magically unfolded outwards to fill in the missing spots. Isana touched the jewel at the bust of the breast-peice and the collarbone-guard and shoulder guard unfolded out from it, conforming to her proportions. The arm-bracers became ganuntlets and guards for her arms that traveled up and attached to the shoulder-guards. The boots traveled up to cover her legs. She balked at the helmet so I compromised and told her she only had to wear it while she was on Tanner's back. She didn't look happy about it, but I could see that she was more eager to get going then she was to argue with me about it so she acquiesced.

I cupped my fingers and lifted her up into the saddle on Tanner's back, Yoruichi sprung up onto the softish saddle-back on the back of the saddle and settled herself in for the ride. I checked my Zanpaktou and took one last cursory glance around to see that we hadn't forgotten anything, then took the reigns and led Tanner and his passengers toward the Gate.

"You're sure it went this way Yoruichi?" I asked as we approached the gate.

It wasn't the same one we'd used the night before, so the coordinates would be different.

"Positive," she replied as she plopped down from the back of the not-horse and aproached the circle of sigil-nodes that would allow us to travel to other Realms in the Dangai.

"You know," I said absently as we approached the steps up to the gate platform. "I've been activating and using these Gates for a while now, and I get that they're run on spiritual energy, but no-one has ever really explained to me how they work."

Yoruichi turned her head and yelped in surprise.

"You've been running around using them, and you don't even know how they work?"

I looked back over at her. And she stared at me for a long moment then shook her head and sounded ruefully bemused as she said

"Typical Renji, I really shouldn't be surprised. You really are more the leap before you look type aren't you?"

I couldn't really deny it, though I know she hadn't been complimenting me.

"Well, it's pretty simple," she said, her tone taking on a teaching ring to it.

She gestured to the circles in the stone, glowing faintly with innate power. There was a large main circle upon which were three smaller circles with smaller rings that had sigils inside of them, like numbers on a rotary telephone. I'd never toyed around with them because I hadn't wanted to run the risk of losing the trail by accident.

"The large circle just binds the three node slots together in one spell," she explained. "The three smaller circles are what you use to get your coordinates for the realm you want. Travel in the Dangai, as connected by World Gates, takes place along the ley-lines, those are the conduits in which the main energy of the Dangai travels along. Each ley-line has a sigil to identify it, and the node-slots in a gateway platform are what are used to find the three main ley-lines that that Relm exists on. Think of it like this, in order to find a particular point in three-dimensional space, you need to use three different axes. The same principle applies here, in order to find a particular Realm in the vast network of interconnected World Gates in the Dangai you enter the coordinate sigils...

She placed a paw on one of the smaller rings on the outside of the larger ring and turned the collection of sigil-nodes in a circle, like a person using one of those old-fashioned rotary telephones. The circle on the inside of the outer ring next to a line that looked like an upside-down Y floating by itself in the middle of the diagram lit up a little more brightly. Yoruichi placed another paw on the other two and selected two more sigil-nodes and summoned up an orb of rieatsu and fed it into the diagram.

It flared up with light and a light-shadow of the three sigils traveled down the three lines in the middle of the diagram like trains on a track and conbined in the center. A pinpoint of light floated up from the very center, and wrote the symbols for the three node-sigils in the air. The neon-like symbols shot towards the gate and the gate lit up. I was used to this by now of course, having seen it over and over every time we'd crossed worlds. It was pretty, but now it was becoming mundane.

Yoruichi hopped back onto the back of Isana's riding beast and I took the reigns and sprinted through the Gate and along the starry-white path between worlds.

"Are you sure you got the right co-ordinates Yoruichi?" I demanded as soon as I stepped out of the starpath from the gate and onto the platform that led to that world and was immediately assaulted by the smell of decaying vegetation and the stink of stagnant water. There were times when having the best nose-for tracking was a very distinct disadvantage.

"Of course I did," she replied back. "It's not my fault that it led somewhere you don't really want to go."

Boy did I ever not want to go there. This place smelled... well, like a swamp.

I looked around, the forest cover was dense and the water was so murky that I couldn't tell how deep or shallow it was. In fact, the water was so murky (not to mention smelly) that it was little better than liquefied mud. The trees looked rotted through and were covered also in thick, disgusting-looking slimy stuff that would most probably make them slippery.

"Looks trecherous," I remarked of the place. "There's no telling how deep that water really is, or what's hiding in it. I've already run inta one nasty tentacle-monster on this trip and I ain't all that inclined to want ta fight another one. Hey, Yoruichi, yer a cat-

"No-way," she said flatly, correctly guessing that I was going to ask her to scout ahead and see if she couldn't find a safe way through this mess.

"There's no-way I'm setting a single paw in that stuff unless I absolutely have to."

"Would you please stay here with Miss Isana while I scout around to see if I can find a way through this mess that won't leave the two of you dripping in swamp-nastiness," I amended.

"That sounds like an excellent plan," Yoruichi said approvingly. "I'll guard the girl, while you look around. Do your best not to slip into it Renji, neither of us want to walk around with a person who smells like unwashed gym socks."

I shot her a dirty look for her "well wishes"

"I can sense a Shadow nearby Renji, so be careful while you are out there. It's not the one you're chasing, but they were in contact with one another and I believe that all of the Shadows are headed in the same direction, to the same Realm."

"I can smell it just fine," I said. "But aside of that..."

I looked around me again, the swamp looked like an ordinary enough (albeit very nasty) swamp except for the fact that htere were large chucks of scenery missing. The sky along the horizon faded to a warped inky-blackness, and there were patches missing from the overcast roof of the sky. The very air around me felt strangely stagnant and devoid of life, a feeling that had nothing to do with the fact that the place stank to high heaven. There was just something about this place that felt like it was dying.

"Aside of that, what, Renji?" Yoruichi asked.

"Don't you feel anything?" I questioned, turning to her. "This place feels... like it's dying. I've been to some other Realms that feel this way too. I've seen other Realms that have peices of the sky missing and Realms where whole chunks of it just aren't there, like someone pulled on the end of a sweater string and started unraveling it."

"Hm..." Yoruichi said, looking around her. "You think it might be them?"

"I dunno," I said honestly. "I don't know much about the Dangai other than what I've picked up along the way. This place seems weird to me all the time, the only difference I've been able to tell is that some Realms are weirder than others."

"Still I doubt those missing pieces are normal, and if it is the work of the Shadows, it might have something to do with us. Do you really think that the Shadows are working with Aizen?"

"I haven't seen anything to support it," I replied. "But that man's as slippery as a river-eel, if he doesn't want his presence known it won't be until he's ready to make a move. It's just a feeling I have. I don't think it's paranoia either, I mean think about it, if you were planning on secretly using a new army you'd amassed to take over the world, would you bother announcing your intentions to your enemies as loud as possible in a way that will unmistakably piss 'em all off, then brazenly all but hang a sign above your new nest that says here 'I am, come and kill me'? It just doesn't make sense. I can't help but think that maybe that whole Winter War was just a distraction, a way to get us to commit our forces..."

"One hell of a distraction if it is," Yoruichi said. "Still..."

She seemed to look at me with something akin to respect in her eyes.

"You know, it's pretty sharp of you to have noticed this and put it all together yourself Renji, I have to admit that I'm pretty surprised. Well, shocked would be closer to the truth. I always took you for this big, dumb jock who's a passable fighter, and terrible at kido, who let's himself be ruled by his stomach and his temper, is pathetically in love with a girl who doesn't notice him that way, and exists to provide me with fodder for my amusement."

:Ouch,: I thought.

She'd hit several targets there. Many of which were, sadly, true.

"Don't go thinkin' I'm some kinda intellectual or nuthin'," I hastened to reassure her. "I'm still a dumb jock, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or maybe its wrong place and wrong time, to notice a few things. I;m sure people a lot smarter than me would have come to that conclusion a lot faster if they'd been running the investigation."

She looked like she didn't know whether or not she was supposed to agree with me.

"Uh, right..." she said.

"Anyway, I'll be looking into things. Stay here until i get back. if you want, have the missy practice her new spellcasting on you, she could use the practice."


The first half of the chapter (the scene with Yoruichi and Renji trying to take a bath) was not in the original draft. I added it in as the inspiration hit me, thinking, "you know what, this story needs a little something... " It needs a little sexual tension. The tension between Isana and Renji isn't really sexual in nature and he really has too hot a bod to not have him naked at some point in the story. ^_^

Thank you for all the wonderful reveiws in the last chapter and I look forward to hearing your opinions on this one. Was it too overdone? I'm not very good with racy sexual scenes (romance novels really aren't my thing) so I'm afraid I might have gotten caught up in the mechanics of it. Or did i go too light on the details and concentrate too much on character (can you concentrate too much on character?)? Tell me what you thought. (nervous)